Manish Acharya who shot to fame with his directorial debut, Loins Of Punjab Presents, passed away in the wee hours of Saturday.

sents, passed away in the wee hours of Saturday. His untimely demise is the third loss to Hindi film industry after directors Saurabh Narang and Pankaj Advani in the recent times.

Acharya, who had gone to Matheran with his family on Thursday, is believed to have met with an accident, which eventually led to his death. Filmmaker Onir, expressing immense shock at the loss of a colleague and friend, revealed that the accident took place when Acharya fell off a horse. “His head hit a stone, which proved to be fatal,” said Onir.

The actor-filmmaker, who was associated with films like

Luck By Chance

and

Sita Sings The B

lues, finished his MFA in Film Direction from NYU.

Many Bollywood stars offered their condolences on Twitter. Sanjay Suri posted, “Shocked to hear about the death.” Sonam Kapoor recalled meeting him recently. “Just found out about Manish Acharya. Love and condolences to his family,” she said. Vir Das too mourned the “loss of a promising, fun and brilliant director.”